The average temperature in New York in January hovers around freezing point, and visitors to NRF typically arrive with suitcases full of their warmest winter wear. Hats, scarves and above all, sturdy footwear are the dress code required to avoid the chill.

But smart NRF attendees are searching out Havaianas, the world’s most iconic thongs.

Sounds like a recipe for frostbite – so why would anyone want to find summer footwear in a New York winter?

The answer is that they are searching out Havaianas on the CitiXsys booth at the NRF Expo, to find out more about how Havaianas use iVend to run their state of the art stores.

For an iconic brand like Havaianas, customer experience is everything, and the store is at the core of ensuring it is positive and consistent. Havaianas was excited by the opportunities that mobile POS offered in enhancing customer store experience – enabling faster checkout, new purchasing locations and better support from sales staff. They also understood that for mobile POS to be truly effective and efficient, it needed to be backed by an enterprise-grade, full-function central core repository.

So why did Havaianas choose iVend POS as the technology on which to run their stores?

Faster checkout

Havaianas stores get busy – a popular product is always in demand. And whilst demand is great for business, queues aren’t – they are the biggest source of customer frustration and lost sales. By implementing mobile POS, Havaianas can quickly reduce queues at busy times, by opening new lanes instantly, or checking customers out while they’re standing in line. iVend Mobile POS offers all the same payment methods as a traditional POS, so customers notice no difference, except the all-important one – speed.

The store outside the store

The store is no longer just the fixed bricks and mortar location – retailers want to take their product to wherever their customers can most easily buy it; which includes pop-up stores, events and shows. In selecting iVend Retail, Havaianas knew that setting up stores outside the store was a simple task – they would have exactly the same full functionality at the beach as in the shopping centre.

Sales staff with information at their fingertips

When customers visit a store, they want support – they want staff to be able to help them with product and stock information. Mobile POS from iVend gives staff this information, literally at their fingertips, without leaving the customer’s side. Staff can quickly find the colour/size the customer wants, organise shipment from another store and take payment – the customer is delighted and the Havaianas has increased sales.

One stock pool – Optimised inventory

For a POS to work efficiently to deliver these customer benefits, it must have a highly efficient, centralised system at its core – and Havaianas recognised that there was none stronger than iVend Enterprise. Through iVend Enterprise a single stock pool can service all stores, of all formats (including online) across all locations. iVend Retail allows Havaianas to optimise inventory, including efficient forecasting and replenishment, ensuring that staff using Mobile POS have a window into accurate and timely information for each transaction.

One customer

Above all, for the customer to have a great experience with a brand, that customer has to be ‘visible’ no matter where and how they shop. iVend Enterprise is the repository for the master data that makes this possible. It allows Havaianas to have a single view of each and every customer, no matter where they transact, ensuring that their experience of the Havaianas brand is positive and consistent.

To find out how the iVend Enterprise platform with iVend Mobile POS can help you implement a first class customer experience, come and find thongs on the CitiXsys booth, #4343 at NRF 2017. To pre-register for a demo (and go into the draw to win an Apple watch) please click here.

We promise you won’t get cold feet!

Senior Vice President of Sales for Asia Pacific and the Americas, for CitiXsys, Paula Da Silva has more than 10 years’ experience in the retail industry associated with delivering innovative software solutions to mid and large sized retailers. Known for her strong track record of operational excellence and managing a global ecosystem of technology partners, Paula has been instrumental in building the iVend Retail into a global market leader in the retail industry and plays a major role in the Company’s overall performance.